Gov. Tom Corbett and others applaud Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane after she took her oath of office at the state Capitol in Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, in Harrisburg, Pa. Kane is first woman and first Democrat to be elected Pennsylvania attorney general. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Thomas Fitzgerald

Political Writer

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane smiled nervously Tuesday when Chris Matthews mentioned why he'd invited her on MSNBC's "Hardball": "I’m looking at people in public service who I can see a couple notches from now being national figures," Matthews, a Philadelphia native, said.

He added he was not going to ask her if she would like to run for president.

Kane, wisely, resisted the natural temptation to fill the silence that followed with a comment.

In the brief interview, she said she believes Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes should continue to be apportioned on a winner-take-all basis, standing in opposition to a bill sponsored by 13 state Senate Republicans to award 18 of the votes, representing the number of seats Pennsylvania has in the U.S. House proportionally based on the popular vote, with the statewide winner getting two extra votes.

Asked what Pennsylvania voters might accepts in terms of gun control, Kane suggested limits on the size of magazines and universal background checks for gun sales. "In Pennsylvania, we’re hunters, we're fishermen, we're sporstmen - we’re all that kind of thing - but we're also very reasonable and practical," Kane said. "You don’t have a right to go into a classroom and take out a whole clasroom in a matter of seconds."

More background checks do not impinge on the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, Kane said. "If we're going to have (them) on some gun sales, we should have them on all gun sales. What's the difference?"

She touted her action repealing the "Florida loophole," which allowed Pennsylvania residents denied permits to carry handguns to obtain them as non-residents from Florida, and have state authorities here recognize those permits.

Kane, remember, refused to entertain questions from Harrisburg Capitol reporters recently when she rejected a contract Gov. Corbett had reached with a British firm to privatize the state lottery.

[updated] She did, however, take scribes' questions after legislative appropriations hearings for her office last week.

No word on whether Matthews felt a "thrill" going up his leg during the interview, as he famously said happened while watching a speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama during the early 2008 primaries.